Political Parties and Public Pensions

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Abstract
This article analyses pooled time series and cross-sections data for pension expenditure in advanced industnal democracies from 1958 to 1986, and cross-sectional data for pension quality and the distributive effect of pensions for 1980. Contrary to previous studies, it demonstrates significant effects of the party political composition of governments ; both Christian democratic and social democratic incumbency are positively associated with pension expenditure Only social democratic incumbency is associated with pension quality and less inequality and poverty among the elderly Aspects of state structure which facilitate access of relatively small groups to the policy-making process are negatively associated with quality of pensions and their distributive effects. The article explains the discrepancies between this and earlier studies, and it explores the reasons for the differences in the determinants of pension expenditure and those of overall welfare state expenditure.

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